Ninjago Gets a TV Movie

[Hapori Tohu]

Earlier this week, Ninjago creator (and fanfic writer) Tommy Andreasen teased an announcement for today. Over on Twitter, he has revealed that the next four episodes of the Ninjago TV series will be edited to become a "feature length TV film." The wording in the post makes it seem like the story will be released as both the episodes and film, so fans of either format will be happy. I'm a bit behind on the Ninjago TV show, but this seems like awesome news to the many fans of the show! Let us know if you're as excited as Tommy and the team in the Talkback.

 

View the full article

[xccj]

Eh, that sounds like what they did with "Day of the Departed" and the original pilot episodes. IMO, those tend to be a tad rushed to tell a full story, feature all the current wave's sets, and focus on one character while reducing the others to side characters. (The pilot was Kai-centric and DotD was Cole-centric. Also, the big official movie was Lloyd-centric.) I've always preferred the longer seasons that can support multiple character arcs. Of course, I'll reserve overall judgment until we see what it's like. (And here's hoping it'll focus on one of the other character, although Zane and Jay/Nya have had their own big seasons already.)

 

[Lenny7092]

A TV movie? Well, that would be interesting. I’ll bet it would be centered on Lloyd and about the Ninja fighting against the Oni, as implied in Season 9. I hope it does. Fingers crossed.

[Aanchir]

Eh, that sounds like what they did with "Day of the Departed" and the original pilot episodes. IMO, those tend to be a tad rushed to tell a full story, feature all the current wave's sets, and focus on one character while reducing the others to side characters. (The pilot was Kai-centric and DotD was Cole-centric. Also, the big official movie was Lloyd-centric.) I've always preferred the longer seasons that can support multiple character arcs. Of course, I'll reserve overall judgment until we see what it's like. (And here's hoping it'll focus on one of the other character, although Zane and Jay/Nya have had their own big seasons already.)

 

 

If it's 4 episodes long, then that's twice the length of the original pilot/TV special or Day of the Departed. In fact, assuming each episode minus opening titles is somewhere between 20 and 22 minutes long, that's longer than any of the Bionicle movies (which were each between 70 and 75 minutes long).

 

What's more, I wouldn't say a movie or TV special being focused particularly on one character is a bad thing, especially in an ongoing series where it's normal for different characters to have a "starring role" in different episodes or story arcs. If I had any major storytelling gripe with Day of the Departed, it was the same as with the LEGO Hero Factory Breakout special: that it was weakened by having to balance six simultaneous storylines in a relatively short running length.

[Takanuinuva]

Hm there goes my theory of it being a recap episode. They wouldn't do a tv movie to recap.

 

Perhaps the Oni are going to take the forms of the Ninjas past enemies? Or maybe even control the Skulkin, Serpentine and the Stone Warrior at kryptarium prison.

[xccj]

If it's 4 episodes long, then that's twice the length of the original pilot/TV special or Day of the Departed. In fact, assuming each episode minus opening titles is somewhere between 20 and 22 minutes long, that's longer than any of the Bionicle movies (which were each between 70 and 75 minutes long).

 

What's more, I wouldn't say a movie or TV special being focused particularly on one character is a bad thing, especially in an ongoing series where it's normal for different characters to have a "starring role" in different episodes or story arcs. If I had any major storytelling gripe with Day of the Departed, it was the same as with the LEGO Hero Factory Breakout special: that it was weakened by having to balance six simultaneous storylines in a relatively short running length.

I was gonna gripe about the Pilot season totally being four episodes, but I guess back then they were shortened episodes so the combination of the lot would only be 40ish minutes. (It's a pain to look up since that season is generally not considered part of the Ninjago series on placed like IMDB.)

 

I still put four episodes as a little bit short. The Bionicle movies aren't exactly a great selling point; they weren't pinnacles of storytelling after all. I'll instead say that it's closer to the half the length of 2014 Rebooted season, which I contend was still one of the weaker Ninjago seasons but did a decent job of incorporating all the characters. If they are going to make this character centric, I just hope they don't focus on Lloyd again; he's had too many seasons that are essentially about him.

 

[Aanchir]

I still put four episodes as a little bit short. The Bionicle movies aren't exactly a great selling point; they weren't pinnacles of storytelling after all. I'll instead say that it's closer to the half the length of 2014 Rebooted season, which I contend was still one of the weaker Ninjago seasons but did a decent job of incorporating all the characters. If they are going to make this character centric, I just hope they don't focus on Lloyd again; he's had too many seasons that are essentially about him.

 

If anything, I think my gripe with the Rebooted season is that it was too long and meandering, rather than too short. There were quite a few story beats like Pythor abducting electric eels from an aquarium as a new Nindroid power source, the ninja getting up to video game shenanigans in the Digiverse, fighting metal-eating alien bugs while trying to escape a comet, and the ridiculous plan of defeating the Overlord with a shrinking pill that prolonged the story but also made it feel rather tonally disjointed.

 

Since then there have certainly been longer seasons based on as few or fewer sets that still managed to feel more coherent and evenly paced to me, like Skybound, Sons of Garmadon, and Hands of Time, but I still don't get the sense that the weaknesses of Rebooted stemmed from it being too short. A bigger factor was probably both the sets AND story needing to be created in somewhat of a rush after the unexpected backlash to the theme's planned conclusion.

 

Anyhow, as I understand it, the writers have generally improved at giving each ninja their own challenges to overcome and ways to contribute to the team effort in recent season. While Day of the Departed was chiefly Cole's story (which was less due to lack of running time than the writers feeling a sense that Cole was due for a starring role after having less impact than his teammates in many previous seasons), even it still managed to tap into some more personal stuff for the other ninja: for instance, Lloyd's grief about the loss of his father, Cryptor having almost a "sibling rivalry" with Zane, and Kai and Nya getting one of their first real opportunities to bond as siblings and reflect on their shared background since Nya became a ninja.

Edited November 19, 2018 by Aanchir